USPS Change of Address: Step-by-Step Guide

The fastest way. Go to usps.com/move (or moversguide.usps.com, which redirects there). You will need a valid debit or credit card in your name at the old address — USPS uses the $1.10 charge to verify your identity and prevent mail-forwarding fraud. The form takes about 10 minutes: choose permanent or temporary, enter the old and new addresses, pick a start date, and pay. You will get a confirmation code by email — save it. If something is wrong later, you need that code to cancel or edit the request.

Walk into any USPS location and ask for PS Form 3575 (the official "Mover's Guide" packet). Fill it out, hand it to the clerk, and you're done — no fee, no card required. This is the right path if you don't have a card with the old address on file, if your name on the card doesn't match the move, or if you'd rather not enter card info online. Processing takes a few business days, the same as online.

Search "change of address" in Google and the top three results are often paid ads from third-party sites: change-of-address.com, usps-changeofaddress.com, official-usps.org, and dozens of others. They charge $30–$80 to submit the same free PS Form 3575 on your behalf. Some are functional middlemen, some are outright phishing operations that capture your name, address, and card number and sell it to data brokers (or use it for identity theft).

The rule is simple: the URL must end in usps.com. Not usps.org, not usps-*.com, not usps.gov. If you landed on the page through a Google ad, scroll past the "Sponsored" results and click the organic usps.com link below them.

First-Class Mail and Priority Mail forward free for 12 months from the start date. Magazines and periodicals forward for 60 days. Standard-class mail (most retail flyers, catalogs, and "current resident" pieces) is not forwarded — it goes back to the sender or to recycling. USPS Marketing Mail with the words "Address Service Requested" gets returned to sender with your new address so the company can update its list, which is how your accounts eventually catch up on their own.

If you need extended forwarding, Premium Forwarding Service Residential bundles your mail and ships it to the new address weekly via Priority Mail for a fee (currently around $24 enrollment + $26.20/week). Useful for long temporary moves where you don't want to miss anything.

Permanent — you're moving and not coming back. Forwarding runs for 12 months and your address is updated in the USPS National Change of Address (NCOA) database, which credit bureaus and large mailers query monthly.

Temporary — you'll be at the new address for 15 days to 12 months and then return to the old one (snowbirds, work assignments, students between semesters). Forwarding runs for the dates you choose, then automatically reverts. Your address is not added to NCOA.

File 2 weeks before move day. USPS lets you set the start date up to 3 months in the future, so file as soon as your closing date or lease start date is locked. Mail typically begins forwarding 7–10 business days after the start date — not instantly — so building in a buffer prevents the awkward gap where mail piles up at the old address with no one to grab it.

USPS forwards mail. It does not update your address with anyone else. You still have to notify:

• Financial — bank, credit cards, brokerage, mortgage, student loans
• Government — IRS (Form 8822), DMV / driver's license, voter registration, Social Security, VA
• Insurance — health, auto, home/renters, life
• Employer & income — HR/payroll, retirement plan administrator, any 1099 clients
• Subscriptions & utilities — Amazon, streaming, gym, magazines, ISP, mobile carrier
• Personal — doctor, dentist, vet, kid's school, attorney, accountant

A practical trick: when forwarded mail arrives in a yellow USPS sticker over the address, that's your reminder that the sender still has your old address on file. Take 30 seconds, update it, and you're done with that one forever.

Filing too early. If you set the start date for next month but mail starts arriving sooner, it still forwards — which means mail going to the old address for the next 30 days bounces. Set the start date for the day after you actually move out.

Filing under the wrong name. A change of address is per individual by default. If your spouse's mail should also forward, file separately for each adult or choose the "family" option (everyone with the same last name at the address).

Forgetting to cancel. If your move falls through, log back in to usps.com/move with the confirmation code and cancel. Otherwise mail forwards to an address you don't live at.

Using a P.O. Box as the "new" address without confirming forwarding. USPS forwards to P.O. Boxes but the box must be active. Open the box first, then file.

Once your forwarding is filed, the next moving-day decision is the actual move. Moving Ranger matches you with 1 vetted moving company by default — or up to 3 nationwide moving companies if you want to compare. No data-broker auctions, no phone-blast.